Vox Multorum: A short story collection

By Aaron DeVries

Vox Multorum is a collection of sci-fi short stories, all of which take place in the same universe from the perspective of different people in different places and times. In this future humanity spreads out into the galaxy and becomes a dominant militaristic presence in region known as the Terran Federation. Politically and culturally the Federation has problems, its past traumas contribute to its future behaviors. Not everyone whose eyes you see through is an important or even consequential figure, but every perspective contributes to the perception of the whole.

As a new author a few of these stories represent my very first attempts at writing short stories entirely of my own creation. If you chose to read it I hope you find at least one of the stories worth your time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781435764842

Book preview

Copyright

Vox Multorum

First Edition

Copyright © 2022 Aaron DeVries

All rights reserved

ISBN: 9781435764842

Stories

Reality is made up of individual minds all experiencing the same thing from a different perspective in time and space.

Virgil One

November 23rd 2058 CE

Watching a pen slowly spin a few centimetres away from me, some music quietly playing from my console next to me. I reach out and tap the pen, making it spin faster, slowly drifting away now. We were told not to let things free float in the cabin, it poses a hazard or something. By hazard, they mean it could poke someone in the eye but it’s a bright red pen moving pretty slowly. If I get it stuck in my eye, I would honestly deserve it because the requirements for that to happen are a lot of bad choices. The pen is now out of my reach. It’s drifting towards an air intake vent so it will stick to that. So I guess my obligation to safety is complete. The music continues quietly next to me. It’s pretty quiet, just the music and the sound of the life support systems humming. I tilt my head to the side and look out the small round window next to me.  Just blackness and stars. The last four months have been the same, not much to see, not much to do beyond the usual housekeeping procedures. I’m not bored, just have nothing to do right this moment. We are expecting a communications packet any time now so that’s something.

As I vacantly stare out the window, I hear my crewmate float in.

Mail call!

Finally, anything of note?

He looked through his tablet

Same old, same old. Some personal letters, operational stuff, news

He handed me the other tablet, which had my personal letters as well as the operational and other content.  I start flipping through.

Anything interesting happening in the news beyond us? I ask.

Eh, not much. The Mars colony is holding elections yet again this December, helium-3 stocks have gone up, the UN is continuing its reorganizing and there are unconfirmed reports that a new charter is being drafted.

Without looking up I respond, A new charter?

Yeah I guess it has to do with the global free trade union or increased international cooperation."

I’m not much into politics so I tuned a lot of that out. Matt was big into politics so he started prattling on regardless of my clear lack of interest. I was reading my letters, but every now and then, I would zone back in to hear him talking about the possibilities of a solar system wide government. He’s optimistic about those things, but I personally can’t see that level of international cooperation. No one wants to give up their nationality or government. I suppose a federation type system might work but I don’t know. I’m an astronaut, not a political scientist. Unlike Matt who legitimately is both. Good to see his degree serving him well. Political science is very important on a mission to Venus where politics isn’t relevant. To be fair he has accumulated over three years in space flight so that’s probably why he’s here. Skimming through the news as Matt continues talking, I see some interesting stuff. A new digital fad among children, reality TV still sucks, something about successes in generating microscopic space warps in the lab. That’s kind of cool. It will be interesting to see where that research goes.

As I read and Matt continues talking and making hand gestures, a beep goes off on both our wristwatches. Time to prep for Venus orbital insertion. Matt stops and pushes off back to the flight deck, I turn off my music and join him.

The flight deck is small, two seats and three square windows in front, panels of touchscreen controls and a few analog controls. Matt was already in his chair running checks. I came around and settled into mine, strapping myself in and grabbing the procedure booklet stuck next to the seat. We couldn’t see the planet, as the spacecraft was already flipped around so all we saw was black empty space out in front.

Fuel check, Matt said.

In the green, hydrogen flow nominal, starting ignition sequence.

Flipping through the procedures and checking the redundant systems, nuclear engines are pretty simple in operation but the safety checks are immense, which I suppose is a good thing considering it’s basically a nuclear reactor on the back end of our vehicle. Matt started the countdown.

Ignition on my mark, five…four…three…two…one, mark!

The engines started up. The acceleration wasn’t severe but we did feel ourselves getting pressed into our seats a little. The engines burned for a few minutes, bringing our orbit down so we will skim through the upper atmosphere of the planet to slow us the rest of the way into our desired orbit. By this point, we could see Venus loom into view slowly to the side. We were very close to the planet, in a way dropping into the upper most part of the atmosphere. After a while, we reoriented the vehicle and could see out over the planet. It looked like Earth from low orbit only no oceans, no plants, just a vast opaque light yellow cream atmosphere obscuring the surface. We could feel as we dipped into the atmosphere. Everything started to shudder, and the rapid deceleration made us sink into our seats some more.

Approaching periapsis, I said as we watched the information streaming on the screens in front of us. Periapsis was the closest we would be to the surface so once we passed it we would be heading back up out of the atmosphere into our new orbit. A few minutes passed and the vibrations faded, the feeling of being pressed into our chairs went away and we were now out of the atmosphere and fully in orbit of the planet. A small correction burn to keep us out of the atmosphere and we were set. I flipped on the communications and sent a transmission back to Earth.

Virgil One to control, orbital insertion complete.

We shook hands and relaxed for a moment, Venus was a very odd planet to see from a low orbit, completely covered in clouds, no surface could be seen, it was a yellowy sand colour, and the sun was brighter here as we were closer to it.

Have a fix on the aerostat? Matt asked.

I turned on the habitat tracker. There should be a small habitat suspended under a large donut shaped balloon full of nitrogen waiting for us. One of the cool things about Venus is the atmosphere is so thick that normal air acts like helium does on Earth so the balloon is just full of mostly nitrogen with some hydrogen to fine tune the altitude. The aerostat should be floating some fifty five kilometers above the surface, at that altitude the temperatures and pressures are similar to Earth, but the air is still very much toxic and acidic so you have to stay inside.

After a moment, a radio ping was received. The aerostat was alive and well, drifting through the clouds below us. That was a very good thing. If we couldn’t find it, we would have to cancel a lot of the mission and stay in orbit, and that’s boring.

Looks like you will be flying us down after all. You can handle that without getting us killed right? I asked with a smug grin on my face. Matt sarcastically laughed in response.

You make fun of my piloting abilities because you secretly like me and don’t know how to express your true feelings, Matt jokingly said before stupidly making a finger gun pose and winking at me in an overstated comedic manner.

HA! You wish, I say as I unbuckle my straps. I pull myself close to Matt. I prefer my guys to be more interesting than a jar of mayonnaise. I smile and slap him on the shoulder before pulling myself back into the living module. I joke, but you are mean, I hear Matt say as I float away. This has how it’s been since we started training for this mission. We flew a mission prior to the lunar station. All of us who were a part of that one became friends, but we also give each other a hard time. One of the reasons we’re chosen for this one is we work well together. That and our combined expertise. I’m here because geology is my main field.  Matt is a very experienced pilot and has more compiled time in space than any of the other available crew. I’m glad I was chosen for this flight.  I really wanted it and worked hard for it. It’s also nice in a poetic way to have a woman on the first comprehensive mission to Venus.

The next day we suited up and ran through the pre-launch checks for the entry vehicle. It was a small two person spacecraft with a heatshield on the underside, but it wasn’t going to reach the surface, as that would crush it. Its job is to enter the atmosphere, slow down, and fly to the aerostat habitat. We waited for twenty minutes until the aerostat was in the correct position for us to intercept.

Standby for undocking, I said. All systems are in the green.

Running through the console in front of me, I switched over the main systems to internal. The entry vehicle was now self-sufficient and ready to fly on its own. Matt looked over to me and asked if I was ready to go. I just responded with a thumbs up and nod. The countdown started, and I read off the numbers aloud. Once it hit zero, I manually activated the docking latches to retract.  We heard a metallic clanking sound followed by quiet. The control jets fired softly on the nose and sides of the vehicle to push us off and away. The bursts where short and small so we didn’t damage the main spacecraft. It’s kind of strange, I can see the jets as we maneuver but you don’t hear anything, no noise from outside.  The only sounds were internal, from the spacecraft and in my suit. My breathing, the rubbing of fabric, the muffled sound of switches and panels being pressed in the cabin.

Undocking successful.  Alright Matt it’s all on you. Try not to kill us.

Matt smiled and gripped the control stick on his right side. No promises.

Another countdown followed by the de-orbit burn, the engines fired for a few seconds slowing our orbit so we were now on a decent course into the atmosphere. The nose of the vehicle was oriented back, facing our direction of travel. The horizon of Venus became wider and the curve of the planet got smoother. The haze of the atmosphere slowly seemed to rise up as we got lower until we started to graze the top. The nose was pitched up so the heat shield was now in position. Our seats began to shimmy a little, and a glow started to appear on the nose outside the front windows. As we got further down the turbulence got worse, the glow got brighter and we started to see streams of plasma shooting by the windows. At this point, we were a meteor speeding through the atmosphere.

The blackness of space vanished above us and was replaced with a haze. We were being battered around as we descended lower. I could finally hear the sound of the atmosphere flying by the hull outside.

Coming up on parachute deployment, Matt said as he ran through the entry procedures. The streamers outside had subsided and the glow of the heatshield was fading. We were still traveling supersonic however. A low thud was heard as the parachute compartment was ejected, and behind us a large parachute unfolded slowing us down greatly. Unlike a space capsule where you enter the atmosphere with your back to the ground we were facing the direction of travel like in a plane, when the parachute deployed we were both forced forward into our harnesses. I could feel the blood rushing to my face and hands. It lasted only a few seconds but it was an uncomfortable sensation. Our speed dropped more, and the parachute was detached and fluttered away behind us. Entry was now over, and Matt took control. The entry vehicle had small wings but it was hardly a glider. Coming up on sixty kilometers altitude, I read off my console. We were guiding in on a very steep angle, more like controlled falling really. The aerostats altitude was fast approaching, and we had slowed our speed enough to deploy the balloon. Matt pushed a button on his console and a hatch running along the back of the vehicle opened up. Out came a folded up mass of chemical resistant coated fabric that inflated with nitrogen. We were lurched forward again as it suddenly slowed us to a crawl. The vehicle was now suspended under an oval shaped balloon, two small, ducted fans unfolded out the back giving us flight control.

After a while we spotted the aerostat right where it’s supposed to be, a collection of modules suspended under a donut shaped balloon among the yellow stained clouds. A tether was coming from the bottom down into the clouds. When we arrived yesterday, it dropped a very long anchor down that drilled into the surface to keep it in on position. The winds at this altitude can be strong however, so it sways around slowly. It’s like a child holding a balloon outside, only Venus is the child. We slowly approached, trying to keep our course aligned with the aerostat. Matt had to make tons of small manual corrections in all directions. The closer we got the more massive the aerostat looked. The balloon was huge. It loomed over, casting a shadow over the habitat and us as we approached the docking port. I activated the docking sequence. The nose opened up like a three-sided door and a ring docking port extended. Very slowly we moved in, the winds trying to push us and the habitat around. Like a pro, Matt had us lined up right when we came within a few meters. One final push from the jets and we touched the connector.

Contact! I said aloud.

Soft dock was achieved. A ring of clamps pivoted around and latched on. The metal clanking of multiple latches securing could be heard, until we got a green light on the hard dock. We made it.

We shook hands again, opened our suits’ visors and unbuckled our harnesses. Tthe feeling of gravity was disorienting, as the gravity here was almost the same as Earth and we had just spent months in zero gravity. Even with the exercise and anti-atrophy injections, my legs still felt heavy and annoying. What made it worse was we had to crawl through the short tunnel leading to the habitat. To save space, the docking port was the same as used in space so it’s wide enough to float through, but not wide enough to walk through. Once we entered however, the habitat was rather open and spacious, four large modules connected to a central cylindrical module.

Home sweet home, Matt said as he started peeling out of his pressure suit.

It’s more a business trip than relocation, I responded as I unlocked my helmet and took it off.

Thanks Ms. Literal.

I stowed my suit in a locker by the airlock and tied my hair back up into a ponytail. Matt went off to the crew quarters, probably to stake claim on what he viewed as the best cabin. There are only four and they are identical so it’s not like it matters. As he did that, I went off to check the main systems and more or less just enjoy being here. Not every day you get to live in a floating house on another planet. The rest of the week was pretty much just that, making sure everything was in working order and running checks.

There was a small leak in a coolant line that needed to be repaired. It’s on the outside of the life support module. There were small catwalks along the sides, so it’s easy to get to, but because the outside is rather toxic, I’m suiting up in a chemical resistant garment. Not quite a space suit, but still enclosed with its own air supply and a helmet. Because the outside pressure was the same as the habitats’ internal pressure at this altitude, it wasn’t pressurised, which made moving easier. Stepping outside I paused and looked out into the clouds. It was breathtaking. Strangely sculpted clouds all around me, a faded yellow colour. I could hear the wind on my suit. I had a tether attached to the catwalk clanking as I walked to the damaged line. It was a surreal experience. It felt like I was on a tall building but when I looked down I could not see a surface, just clouds forever.

Reaching the line, I saw that it was just